Kickstarter: Dujanah

Dujanah is a game currently on Kickstarter that combines a folklorist’s touch, hand crafted environments and a created fictionalized Islamic majority country. The game is the brainchild of Jack King-Spooner, an independent game development with a touch of the strange and a history of making games that people connect with on a personal level (see the unique Beeswingfor an idea).

For this game, King-Spooner is delving into the world of Dujanah, the titular female protagonist. Dujanah is on a “quest of yearning” in her home country, an occupied Islamic-majority state. The state has been fictionalized, but King-Spooner is making an effort to ground everything in real Islamic culture. (His Kickstarter actually includes a personalized reading list for materials he is delving into in order to treat the subject matter respectively.)

I am ill-qualified to speak on whether the narrative is appropriate and respectful to the culture that it is discussing (if you have an opinion on the matter, please feel free to contact me through the site), and the real stand out of Dujanah‘s Kickstarter is the graphics. Dujanah has elements reminiscent of Amanita Design, combining recognizable standards from the traditional point and click adventure alongside natural textures and claymation. In a narrative sense, this element prevails as well with non-fiction accounts interspersed with the fictional and magical realist elements throughout.

The Kickstarter is currently only partially funded, but with 25 days to go. King-Spooner has suggested that his previous delivering a game of this scope (Beeswing, also a Kickstarter) proves him capable of delivering this title as well. The game is, at time of post, 65% complete with an anticipated delivery date of October 2016. Around $10 will get you access to an DRM free copy of the game and further tiers provide in-game feature naming and other interesting backer rewards.